Month: September 2017

On September 28, NYU Washington DC will host the fourth event in a series focused on the European Union as part of its EU in Focus series. EU in Focus is a series designed to enhance a student’s working-knowledge of the European Union. In close partnership with the Delegation of the European Union to the United States, NYU Washington, DC’s EU in Focus lecture series considers critical issues in a professional rather than conventionally academic setting. NYU Washington, DC students who attend all DC sessions will be eligible to apply for a student leadership retreat to Brussels, the heart of the EU government. The retreat is organized jointly with NYU Florence and will be October 26 – 31.

The European Union represents the largest trading bloc and international donor in the world. It has the largest GDP; the third largest population; and is among the highest ranking in the world for health, education and living conditions. Europe remains the most important commercial and investment partner for the United States. The EU comprises a nuclear power, a permanent member of the UN Security Council and multiple seats on the G-20. From the escalating terror in its southern and eastern neighbors to Russia’s increasingly aggressive military confrontations, Europe borders regions most strategic to U.S. foreign policy and faces some of the 21st century’s most pressing security challenges. Despite these increasingly consequential and visible tensions, the “European Miracle” remains as relevant to international affairs as it was during the Cold War.

The program on 28 September is US and the EU: The Transatlantic Fight against Terrorism. The session will be presented by Laura Kupe, a Policy Analyst at the RAND Corporation. This fourth and final seminar will examine the importance of the US-EU relationship, highlighting specifically the transatlantic dialogue on security cooperation. The September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and the subsequent revelation of Al Qaeda cells across Europe strengthened both sides’ commitment to combating terrorism, but challenges persist in fostering a closer US-EU security partnership. How has the heightened threat posed by the Islamic State influenced the transatlantic security policy agenda? This workshop will assess the Atlantic community’s most pressing security threats and explore the progress to date and ongoing challenges of US-EU counterterrorism efforts.

The earlier sessions in this series covered a range of interesting and engaging topics.

The series opened on September 7 with the program Fundamentals of the European Union. Timothy Rivera, Programs Officer at the Delegation of the European Union to the United States, presented the introductory workshop. It provides an overview of the origins and governing structure of the European Union. To understand the development of the 28-member bloc, this lecture examined the cultural, historical and strategic background of the European integration experiment, from World War II to present day.

The next session, on September 12, focused on The Evolving EU Governmental System. H.E. Pierre Clive Agius,Ambassador of the Republic of Malta to the United States of America, explored the unique governing system of the supranational entity. By participating in this seminar, students gained a basic understanding of the EU’s institutional framework and decision-making process. The lecture focused on the governmental innovations introduced in the Lisbon Treaty and the EU’s roadmap for social, economic and foreign and security policy.

The third session, Brexit Aftershocks: Economic and Political Implications, took place on 21 September. Lead by H.E. Dirk Wouters, Ambassador of Belgium to the United States of America, this program considered various aspects of Brexit and its aftermath. In the weeks following the United Kingdom’s fateful EU referendum, Great Britain experienced a sharp fall in the British Pound, record-low interest rate cuts, and a change of government and cabinet reshuffle. The United Kingdom is once again entering unchartered territory as the nation prepares to negotiate its exit from the European Union. Theresa May, Britain’s Prime Minister, has promised to secure the best possible deal for the UK, but many questions regarding the timeline of the negotiations and how Brexit will affect immigration, trade, and global markets, remain unanswered. This seminar revisited the implications of Britain’s historic vote and walked students through the next steps in this unprecedented geopolitical divorce.

There’s a flurry of activity behind the large glass doors of the Madrid meeting room in Etihad Cargo’s head office in Abu Dhabi’s Masdar City. The bright afternoon light streams in through large picture windows as students from New York University’s degree-granting campuses — eight from NYU Abu Dhabi, three from NYU Shanghai, and one from NYU New York— prepare to present interactive applications and product prototypes to senior Etihad Cargo officials.

A mechanical whir occasionally punctures the chatter in the room as a small, box-shaped robot with Etihad Cargo emblazoned across the top in gold letters moves across white tables in the center of the room.

Etihad’s David Kerr, senior vice president of cargo, and Robert Fordree, head of cargo handling, are ready to see the student’s protoypes for the first time:

Cargie: a load-carrying robot capable of machine learning;

Paper Trail: an app to track airway bills and cargo documents (the industry still relies heavily on paper);

Viz360: a virtual training app; and

HoloCargo, a 3D-scanning and virtual reality system that can help loadmasters build pallets of boxes in a 3D environment.

The prototypes are the end result of an intensive four-week summer course taught at NYU Abu Dhabi by Christian Grewell, adjunct assistant arts professor of interactive media arts at NYU Shanghai.

Students enrolled in the Driving Genius course are taught the ins and outs of robotics, programming, and design principles, combined with the technical know-how needed to develop products that cater specifically to the airline cargo industry, which is where Etihad Cargo stepped in as a course partner. The students get to use augmented reality, virtual reality, and sensory technology and also learn how be entrepreneurs, drawing up successful business plans for their products.

“It’s about establishing a partnership where students gain everything they would from a traditional course including the opportunity to test their models in the real-world ‘laboratory’ of the organization,” Grewell said about partnering with Etihad Cargo. “When Etihad engaged with us, they engaged across every function of their business and at various levels in the organization. We came up with ideas for people not just in executive positions, but in-line level operational roles. That’s an invaluable experience for students when combined with the work we do in the lab and classroom.”

Learning on the Fly

Students were given access to Etihad Cargo’s warehouse operations so they could understand how things work and identify processes where efficiencies could potentially be improved. They were then split into three groups and tasked with designing and developing feasible tailor-made solutions using virtual technology.

With augmented reality and virtual reality technology becoming more affordable and accessible, students in the course are also taught to manage expectations — their own and the client’s — to figure out what works best for a company’s business model.

Back in the Etihad Cargo meeting room, Grewell observes as the groups demonstrate their prototypes, occasionally chiming in with words of encouragement or offering bits of trivia.

“They’ve worked really hard on these presentations and the quality of their work is outstanding,” he said. “Generally students have all these great ideas and prototypes but they struggle when it comes to presenting.”

There’s no visible hint of a struggle or even nervousness as the students confidently field questions from Kerr and Fordree about their work prompting the senior vice president, at one point, to remark that their insights were spot on and that “the (cargo) industry is pretty underinvested in technology. I like to think that in the future, we’re not an airline business but a technology company with airplanes and warehouses et cetera.”

A final round of applause brings the presentations to a close and the students heave a sigh of relief as everyone shuffles out of the meeting room. It’s been an intense few weeks but Grewell emphasizes the need for a course like this as a bridge between classroom learning and meeting real-world corporate expectations.

“I think this is a win-win for all parties when educators, students and organizations come together,” he concluded.

By Deepthi Unnikrishnan, NYUAD Public Affairs; This piece comes to us from NYU Abu Dhabi’s Salaam blog and is available here.

What if the titles of a course’s lectures were based on actual headlines? This semester, the Prague site has done just that in our newly-launched course “History in the Headlines” and some examples of the lecture titles include:

Modern Life in an Old City: Is Prague Becoming a Disneyland?

Donald Trump and his Czech Mini-me

How will Brexit Change Central Europe?

The course meets once a week and is taught by 14 members of our faculty, each an expert on the topic they present. Lecturers include the former Czech minister of foreign affairs, leaders of the Vevet Revolution and the dissident movement against Communism, an architect at Prague Castle, a film historian and a jazz musician. Seminars are overseen by the NYU Prague Director Jiri Pehe and Assistant Director of Academics Vanda Thorne.

The original, highly-successful precursor of the class was developed in New York by Timothy Naftali in the Department of History (CAS). In New York, the goal of the course was “to enable students to curate knowledgeably the flood of news spewing from their media 24/7.”

Eliot Bernstein from the Russian and Slavic Studies Department at CAS came up with the idea that the New York syllabus could be adapted by Prague. According to Vanda Thorne, Assistant Director of NYU Prague, “We are following the NYU model, but additioanlly we are aware that our students have much less of a context to draw upon when they read articles about Czech or European news. They didn’t grow up here, they might not know the history of the region. We try to give them the historical and cultural context so they will can better understand whether the media is reflecting and interpreting things accurately.”

Students read and discuss academic articles in addition to the articles that the headlines come from. Does the article reflect reality? How do media report on hot topics – and how could they affect the opinions of the reader?

The 2-credit class is open to students of all majors and is designed to increase NYU’s affordibility as well as help students have a deeper understanding of the country and region in which they are studying. Students who haven’t signed up for the class are welcome to audit.

This is a hot topic in the era of fake news. Other NYU global sites are considering their own versions of this project, which would create space for interesting inter-cultural analyses and discussions – not to mention more interesting headlines.

On September 20, NYU Florence will host Imma Vitelli, an international correspondent with Vanity Fair Italy. She recently spent time in North Korea and will share her experiences. She will also host a journalism workshop on September 21-22 for NYU students. The workshop will consider questions such as: How do you report in a totalitarian state with three government minders, two “guides” and a photographer who takes photos of you taking photos of North Korea? How do you come up with a story in a country where you have no freedom at all? Ms. Vitelli will teach what to do, what to avoid and how to see what the state will rather hide.

“Last May, I spent ten days in North Korea, and it was by far the most bizarre experience I have ever had. The idea was to report on the elites supporting the paranoid regime of President Kim Jong-un. We saw champagne flowing in spite of sanctions and children singing the glory of the nuclear program. We dined on a yacht by the river in Pyongyang and felt like we were in a lost galaxy, or in East Berlin, in the 1960s.”

Austin Basallo, a Gallatin senior studying philosophy, studied abroad in Spring 2016 as a sophomore. While there, he participated in a volunteer trip to the Calais refugee camp. The trip involved students from both NYU London and NYU Paris and was both illuminating and intense for all involve. Austin reflects upon his experience for us:

I did not appreciate the gravity of the situation NYU London was signing me up for. It was a simple email invitation, like so many others, offering abroad students another extracurricular chance to do something “neat,” and for free, in another country. When we boarded the coach parked parallel to Coram’s fields I had little idea how we were getting to France, nor what I’d be doing. It was until a few hours later when our vehicle entered a train which ran through a tunnel to the coast of France that it dawned upon me: I was in a very different place.

Once we exited the train, we drove on a long dirt road along the coast. To our right, the small town of Calias. To our left, a chain wire fence separating us from an appalling site: an endless ocean of tents—rags really. Blues, reds, orange, tattered, high up, down low, and all dirty. All belonging to the refugee camp. We were brought to an isolated warehouse, surrounded by greenery, a quasi-secret base of operations. We actually were at a refugee distribution center, a joint effort ran by Help Refugees and L’auberge des Migrants, two refugee aid organizations.

The moment we hopped out of the coach we were given forms indicating that we would not take photos advertising the location nor would we be handing out this sensitive information once we left. Quasi-base was turning into actual base. I was beginning to experience firsthand just how charged the subject of refugees, and more controversially helping them, was in Europe.

Once signed and handed off, we were guided into the distribution center. Divided into three main sections, the warehouse was home to the three essentials for any human’s survival: food, clothing, and shelter. The food for feeding, the clothing for warming, and the shelter for protecting. All things the refugees were fighting for. Each section had its own system of packaging and sending out their specific materials.

I was assigned to the food section, experiencing firsthand how efficiently 10 people could assemble “care packages” of food. The system was based around packaging boxes based on family size. For a family of ten: 2 liters of oil, 5 kg of rice, 4 cans of beans, etc. Hopefully, enough food to last the recipients a week. Surrounded by industrials racks holding large reserves of food, a collection of tables had bins filled with all of the supplies required. Warm folk music turns on, and people get moving. The veteran volunteers run laps around the newbies, deftly filling up box after box with a variety of food items, knowing that the rice stacks well with the beans but not the oil, and sugar and spices always go at the top so the bags aren’t damaged and the contents spilled. But as time passes, the newcomers find their stride and began filling up boxes just as quickly and effectively. Not much talking happens, everyone is laser-focused on filling up the boxes, as though if lives depended on it. I only realized later that lives did, and continue to, depend on it. Within hours, some two hundred boxes were packaged and ready to be delivered.

After all of this work, lunch time came about and the community of volunteers came together to break bread. All walks of life were present. An old French pair, chatting while eating lentil soup. Several groups of students from both NYU London and NYU Paris, exchanging their experiences abroad. World travelers, people who can’t stop moving but help everywhere they can along the way. A gypsy couple tattooed from head-to-toe with ornate dreadlocks. The environment was so peaceful, removed from all of the politicking about the refugee crisis. These were just people who wanted to help. From the moment I entered the warehouse, I felt like I was a part of a community. A community of helpers, working towards something greater than all of us individually. It did not matter where we came from, or where we were going—the problems of the refugee were so great we all wanted to do something about it, even if only for a moment.

The day was coming to a close. Packages had been sealed, clothes organized, and the warehouse a little tidier than when we found it. We said our goodbyes to newfound friends, walked out of the warehouse, and boarded the coach. On our way back to London, I just began realizing that the experience had been surreal. I accidentally became part of movement that is rocking a continent. The implications are huge, brining in questions of human rights, national sovereignty, and international politics. These controversies played out in my head, inundating me into a deep sleep. A few hours later, I found myself waking up in Bloomsbury. I’m still not sure if I ever left.

Throughout a study abroad experience, students are challenged to look within. Upon arrival, their maturity and independence is tested. This occurs from the moment they are introduced into their new environment. They are pushed to navigate unexpected cultural differences, adapt to a different culture, and problem solve when necessary. This experience teaches students essential life skills which can later be transferred into their professional life.

With this in mind, NYU Wasserman Center for Career Development and NYU Global Programs recently teamed up to host NYU Global Career Week. This week long event was filled with career development seminars and was hosted virtually and in-person. This event encouraged students to start thinking about how they can leverage their study away experience in their next internship or full-time position.

This past March, NYU Sydney hosted Allison Pirpich, Manager of Global Career Development, to led NYU Global Career Week on-campus. During this week, Allison hosted in-person seminars on a global job search, an U.S. job search, and Virtual Interviewing. Allison also hosted a lecture called, “Telling your Global Story,” to the academic internship course that showed students how to identify their skills and translate it to future, professional positions. These seminars showed students how their global experience can be translated to the experience section of their resume, examples in their cover letter, and answers to an interview question. Students learned the key to this process is making their study away experience relevant to the job description and needs of the employer.

In addition to these seminars, Allison met with students in one-on-one coaching appointments. Students brought in a wide-range of questions from, “I have no idea what I want to do after I graduate. How will I decide?” to “How do I search for my next NY internship from Sydney?” These conversations gave students the opportunity to learn what resources were available and how to create a strategy for their next career-related goal. These meetings continued after NYU Global Career Week with virtual coaching appointments and drop-in hours.

This event was accompanied by a Wasserman Global Peer, a student leader who was versed in resume creation, cover letter advice and knowledge of career development resources. This leader led a Resume & Cover Letter Workshop and was an in-person touch point for students throughout the entire semester.

Students often study abroad with the idea of living and working abroad in the future. NYU Global Career Week showed students how to make the case that their experience abroad makes them a valued and competitive candidate. It is important to prepare students with the confidence to demonstrate applicable traits in post-graduation job applications and in the real world.

NYU students across the world have been busy getting settled into new homes, making new discoveries, learning new languages, and more. We at Global Dimensions are excited to continue sharing their stories and more. A few photos from various orientations below, students navigating a new currency, a new campus, exciting new selfie angles, and even the tango!